History Revealed: Ancient Civilizations and the Bible {Review}

*I received a free History Revealed: Ancient Civilizations and the Bible curriculum set from Answers in Genesis as a prize I won at a Twitter party. I’m sharing this review with you to help AiG Homeschool spread the word about the curriculum. All opinions are my own. I only share products my family uses and finds beneficial. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting this site.

I found the curriculum a little intimidating when I started using it. It comes with a student book, a teacher textbook, an elementary activity book (the curriculum is recommended for grades 6 – 12 but can be adapted for younger students), CDs, and a test kit. The great thing about it, and what makes it an adjustment at first, is that the curriculum is divided into phases for each section studied. Each phase focuses on a different learning style so that each child’s needs are met during the unit of study.

At first, my children and I were overwhelmed by the amount of information presented and the activities we could do! Then I remembered that my children are in the third and fifth grades this year, that we can repeat this curriculum again in a few years (after we go through the curriculum sets that follow this one), and that we homeschool, so I can modify the curriculum in a way that best suits my family. One of my children has some special needs and learning challenges, so it’s especially important to present information to her in a way that she can digest it without getting overwhelmed and frustrated.

Here’s what I settled on:

I read through the full text in the textbook.

I go over the major events of the period we’re studying with the girls, reading the Bible history and facts in the Elementary Activity Book and adding any interesting and important information I learned from my reading in the textbook.

We spend several days listening to most of the recommended tracks from the various CD sets. (These are very interesting, and Diana Waring is so enthusiastic about history that her excitement is contagious!)

We do some of the activities from the elementary book, including games, puzzles, and hands-on learning activities, and we look at maps of the areas we’re studying.

We add key events to the timeline we’re creating using the TimelineBuilder iPad app by Knowledge Quest. This allows us to see patterns and get a better idea of exactly when things happened in relation to each other. I don’t know why it never occurred to me before, but as we worked on the timeline a couple of weeks ago, I realized that the ancient civilizations didn’t develop until after God scattered everyone after the Tower of Babel incident!

We move to the next time period, unless we want to do further research or more crafts and activities related to the period we’ve been studying.

The great thing about Ancient Civilizations and the Bible is that it can be adapted to meet the needs of your family, and there’s so much information that there’s more than enough to satisfy the older student’s thirst for details, but the Elementary Activity Book also makes it easy to simplify for younger students.

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Giveaway of a History Revealed Set

Answers in Genesis is going to give one of you a curriculum set of your choice: Ancient Civilizations and the Bible, Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries, or World Empires, World Missions, World Wars! This giveaway is open to U.S. residents age 18 or older and is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social media site. The giveaway ends at 9:00 pm CST on Monday, December 9, 2013, and the winner will be selected by the plug-in “And the Winner is….” The winner will be notified by email within 48 hours of the end of the giveaway and will have 48 hours to respond with a valid mailing address and choice of curriculum sets for me to send to AiG so they can mail you your curriculum! If I don’t hear back within 48 hours, I will choose another winner.

To enter, leave a comment telling me which curriculum set you would like to win, and two reasons why you would like to win it. (One comment per person. Additional comments will be deleted, and comments left after the giveaway ends will also be discarded.)

13 Responses to History Revealed: Ancient Civilizations and the Bible {Review}

How fun! We’re doing Ancient Civilizations this year. I was using Mystery of History and Story of the World, but I still haven’t found a rhythm. We’ve learned a lot, we have note booked along the way which is great, but I would love to check AIG’s curriculum. I didn’t even realize they had History. (I have their science).

I have gotten to look at some of this history curriculum. It looks fabulous! I would really like the world history! I think the cds would make it interesting. I think the best part is that it teaches biblical history along side other history which would be great!!

We would love to win Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries because we’re already studying Ancient Civilizations this year. I really appreciate Diana Waring’s philosophy of education and her commitment to present history from a biblical worldview. I love that this curriculum would work well with different types of learners. Thank you for the chance to win.

Thanks for this review! Very helpful. A friend of mine has started with this curriculum series this year, and has had wonderful things to say about it as well.
I would hope we could win: World Empires, World Missions, World Wars
1. It would fit well into where we will want to study next year
2. I think this curriculum is going to be a good fit for us since my boys are 3 years apart.

Thanks for the helpful review! I stumbled across this on Pinterest. We have been using another history curriculum that also can cross grade levels, but it’s not coming from a biblical worldview and I’ve been looking into other options. I haven’t heard of this curriculum until now. I would like to try this out because of the biblical worldview and also being able to see how Bible history and world history fit together. If I were to win I would like Ancient Civilizations and the Bible.

I would be interested in any of the offerings from AIG. I would be interested in this curriculum because it addresses different learning styles and it’s geared toward high school learning as well. My daughter is interested in learning about Jewish history which seems, essentially, anything BC. I would welcome the corresponding Bible history.

I would love the Ancient Civilizations curriculum! I have been looking at this curriculum for years now and thinker. I’ll probably take the plunge into it next year! My reasons for wanting it are:
1- cyan t each many ages at once
2- it’s Biblically based
3 (just for extra!)- I love that it teaches in all the different styles
…and many other reasons! Thanks for the chance to win!